Luciano: Peoria baseball signed by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig proving to be a tough sell

Friday

Jun 6, 2014 at 3:00 PM

Phil Luciano of the Journal Star

Jody Kimbrell has a deal for you.

She’s discounted an intriguing, old Peoria baseball by almost two-thirds. It’s now just $16,999.

Then again, she says, it’s signed by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. And it’s now way cheaper than the $50,000 asked by Kimbrell in 2010, when we last visited her. Since then, it’s remained the highest-priced Peoria-connected item on eBay — a dubious spate of longevity, as far as the 57-year-old is concerned.

“I guess nobody cares about Peoria,” she says with a sigh.

Actually, eBay would say otherwise. As of Thursday morning, there were 6,484 Peoria-connected items lurking there.

I’ll pop in from time to time, just to see if there are any new treasures from Peoria’s distant past. Maybe a lock of Chuck Collins’ hair. Or a photo of Tom McIntyre shaking hands with Abe Lincoln. Or newspaper clippings from a rumored City Hall scandal circa 1893, when an outraged Mayor Philo B. Miles alerted local constables about offensive, anonymous telegrams circulating about town, tying him to harlots and beer halls (According to legend, one I just made up, the mayor demanded a public lynching, but cooler heads prevailed).

Anyway, many of the Peoria-centric eBay items include collectibles, some of which are unusual. A sepia 2-by-4-inch antique photo — no name or date, just the notation of a “dapper, handsome gentleman with beard, Peoria, Illinois” — can be had for just $1.25. But a “super rare” Chief Beer wooden crate — made of real wood in the ‘40s or ‘50s by the Peoria Brewing Co. — will set you back $1,000.

As for vestiges of famous visitors, a “unique, handmade William McKinley tribute” — essentially, a scrapbook of his 1901 visit to Peoria — can be immediately bought for a whopping $1,350. But a 1984 backstage pass for a Billy Squier concert runs just ($2.77).

Speaking of shows, a 1976 performance by Fleetwood Mac and Jeff Beck at Glen Oak Amphitheatre (yes, seriously) commanded $7.50 per ticket — as touted on a concert poster listed on eBay for $350. But unused tickets ($5.50 face value) for a 1973 Peoria Speedway performance by Buck Owens & His Buckaroos are being sold (appropriately enough) for just a buck.

What lurks at the top of the Peoria listings? Three items from the sporting world. An autographed Albert Pujols rookie card (the Chiefs, in 2000) runs $3,800 — but that’s good for just third place, behind a duck. A G. Bert Graves duck decoy (“great original paint and in great condition”) is listed at $9,500.

And that brings us back to Jody Kimbrell’s baseball.

Her late grandfather was Kenneth “Cookie” Blair, who would serve as Peoria County’s recorder of deeds. As a kid, he loved baseball. At age 11 in 1928, he served as a junior manager for the Peoria Junior American Legion team. The squad earned a berth in the state tournament, at Wrigley Field in Chicago, taking second place. A post-tourney banquet at the Sherman Hotel was attended by Ruth and Gehrig, in town with the Yankees to play the White Sox.

Prepared, each Peoria player brought a fresh baseball for signatures by the two stars. As an afterthought one of the players thought of Blair back home, grabbing a scuffed game ball — made and stamped by Jackson-Keenan Co., a Peoria sporting goods dealer — and got Ruth and Gehrig to sign.

Blair got the ball when the squad got back home. None of the other balls survived; the other kids used them for sandlot games.

But her grandfather kept his. After he died n 1977, his widow gave Kimbrell many of his possessions. Including a small box with a baseball inside. She vaguely knew the signatures, but zeroed in on the label: “Jackson-Keenan Co.” and “Peoria, Ill.”

“That’s why I cared about it, because it’s from Peoria,” she says.

In time, friends said the ball could bring a hefty price. She had the autographs analyzed by experts, who confirmed the signatures’ authenticity. She has a certificate to prove it, as shown on her eBay offering.

Kimbrell, who hawks bric-a-brac on eBay, first priced the ball at $50,000. But she has received just one offer: $8,000. Trying to build up an inheritance for four grandchildren, she rejected the price as paltry.

So, after some prior mark-downs, the ball is now selling for $16,999.

“That’s for my four grandkids — divide it by four,” she says.

Why not pick a more easily divisible sum?

“I don’t know,” she says with a laugh. “But I thought one of the businesses around here might buy it — for history, for a museum.”

It’s hard to pinpoint values for these kinds of things. On eBay, Babe Ruth autographed baseballs are listed as high as $50,000. But many are much less, because of the condition of the ball and signature.

Randy Conlee, owner of Baseball Card City in Peoria, guesses the Peoria ball might be worth $10,000. But a live auction could goose the price.

“If someone gets in a bidding war, it could go up to around 17 grand,” he says.

Kimbrell, who lives in Hanna City but owns Jeth Court Apartments in Peoria, keeps the ball in a safety deposit box. Kimbrell isn’t going to worry if the eBay offering stays cold.

“If it doesn’t sell, it’s going to sit in granny’s safety deposit box until granny croaks,” Kimbrell says. “Then they can decide what to do with it.”

But she — or they — might have something else to ponder. In that safety deposit box, there’s another ball, with other autographs. Whose? Kimbrell has no idea. She says the players could’ve been on a Peoria ball club.

Or maybe not. She might want to take a close look. If any of those signatures say “Abner Doubleday” — who knows? — she might have amazing souvenir on her hands.

PHIL LUCIANO is a Journal Star columnist. He can be reached at pluciano@pjstar.com, facebook.com/philluciano or (309) 686-3155. Follow him on Twitter @LucianoPhil. He co-hosts Barstorming, a video blog of unique local taps and eateries taps, at http://www.pjstar.com/entertainment/barstorming